Twenty of the seats are currently in Republican hands. The Post did list a Democrat, Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Florida, as most likely to lose his seat. Mahoney is in the news for reaching a $150,000 settlement in a suit brought by a former mistress.

Seeking his third term, Reichert is one of a bevy of incumbent Republicans in the states of the West – several of whom have held safe seats – who are finding themselves in hot water.

“Rep. Dave Reichert is probably the only Republican who could hold this Seattle area seat that is moving strongly in the Democrats’ favor,” wrote Chris Cillizza, editor of the Post’s “The Fix” political blog.

“Reichert’s local fame (he helped capture the Green River killer) might not be enough to insulate him from a terrible Republican year.”

An internal put-down war over Burner’s prospects of taking the 8th District seat has divided the local left.

After two years of flacking for Burner, The Stranger has lately been down on her prospects. A Research 2000 poll, conducted for the (relentlessly pro-Burner) dailykos.com web site, showed Reichert with a comfortable lead.

But two Democrat-sponsored polls have put Burner in front. David Goldstein, proprietor of the Horsesass.com web site, has condemned doubters for their loss of faith. Goldstein, too, is a relentless Burner supporter.

(A local joke goes that if Reichert were to walk from Mercer Island to Seattle across the surface of Lake Washington, Goldstein would run the headline on his web site: “PROOF!!! Reichert can’t swim.”)

And, to complete the circle, dailykos.com carried an item on Friday morning boosting Burner and touting the polls that contradicted its own survey.